I got my nickname by being DJ Monkeyboy back in the day and since I'm pretty short and wiley, the nickname seems to fit. When I moved from the Midwest to the west coast the public DJ thing ended, so I shorted the name down to just Monkey.

Despite my obvious interest in all things tactical, my main skill set is art and design. I have always been interested in the military, but the parents pushed college pretty hard so that’s where I ended up. Post graduation, I came across an opportunity to get a little closer to the MIL side, yet not waste all that schooling money, by joining the Army Game Project team. Although my work starts in the public domain, it transitions to the full gov/training side, which I hope aids in saving lives. My status as a DOD Contractor for the US Army is not considered full military; however, the Project is a great way for me to serve the US war fighters with my unique skill set of videogame art and design. My morale patches are another example of using my art skills to add a little amusement in the MIL/LEO/GOV systems. I know they won't change the world, but I'm happy to see them put a smile on a service person's face when times aren't always so pleasant.

Sometimes I’m called things on the net like “warboy poser” and I wish those people would take time to learn more about me. I do my best to gather tactical knowledge and participate in training when possible, but you will never hear me claim to be some high speed cool guy you should listen to. I don't mind looking a little goofy if it helps service people learn a little more about gear. Hopefully this helps them get what is best for their needs and thus allowing them to focus on more important things. Although I'm not downrange in the suck, when I review items I make sure to use them how a service person would in order to determine if the product does what it is designed to do while being strong enough to survive hard use. This site is not about trying to look cool; I made it to share information.

When I have time, I take stabs at designing kit of my own. I do my best to only make items that bring substantial improvements or at least different approaches to what is currently out on the market. I keep my reference information in the “Customize” section, those who also like to mod or create their own kit may find it helpful.

Browse around. Someday I'll improve the site design flow, but the poor monkey only has so much time in a day to devote to his hobby. Until then, I hope you find my site useful. Keep in mind this review site is totally separate from our store site and links to where you can buy review items are typically at the bottom of the articles.

MAXPEDITION SITKA GEARSLINGERTuesday, 17 March 2009 Maxpedition keeps em coming with further development in the popular gearslinger series. The Sitka first comes off to me as an evolution of mixing... Read More...